Self-financing higher education institutions (SfHEIs) in Hong Kong help boost the local higher education participation rate, but they are labeled as second-tier opportunities for those with academic weaknesses. Students at SfHEIs may develop a negative self-concept that deteriorates their academic performance and psychological wellness. Therefore, it is critical to understand their self-concept and how it is built. From the narrative perspective, a self-concept is the storied experiences or stories that are lived; therefore, this study employs narrative inquiry using 15 SfHEI students to represent the general pattern of the participants’ experiences. This study proves that students at SfHEIs tend to view themselves as losers or inferiors based on their low self-evaluations of their Hong Kong Diploma of Secondary Education Examination (HKDSE) results, SfHEIs, and career futures. Additionally, this study sheds new light that the loser identity is historically developed from childhood during interactions with parents and teachers, as parents and teachers continuously reinforce the message that enrollment at a publicly funded university is the only way to achieve success in life. Copyright © 2022 by the authors.

This study investigated the relationships between students' self-efficacy and self-concept for learning languages and students' academic achievement in learning English and Chinese. 1092 eighth to eleventh graders from four Hong Kong secondary schools completed questionnaires reporting their self-efficacy, self-concept and academic results for Chinese language and English language. Results indicated that Chinese language self-efficacy and self-concept were significant predictors for Chinese language learning achievements. English language self-efficacy and self-concept predicted both students' English and Chinese learning achievements. These results provide some support for both the domain specificity of self-efficacy and the internal/external frame of reference effect. There is also support for the notion that learning English language facilitates the learning of Chinese language but not the other way around.
[Copyright of Asia-Pacific Education Researcher is the property of Springer.]

The aims of this study were to examine changes in students' English and math self-concepts and to investigate the effects of gender and school ability level on these changes. Self-concept in English and math were measured thrice across three years among a sample of 2618 secondary school students from Hong Kong. Gender and school ability level were included as time-invariant predictors. Results indicated that students' English self-concept slightly increased across time, while math self-concept marginally declined. Gender influenced both the initial levels and rates of change for English and math self-concepts, while school ability level predicted initial levels of self-concept. Implications are discussed.
[Copyright of Educational Psychology is the property of Routledge. Full article may be available at the publisher's website:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01443410.2014.909009]